Over the last decade, there has been a substantial increase in the use and deployment of wireless client devices, from dual-mode smartphones to tablets capable of operating in accordance with a particular Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard. With “wireless” becoming the de-facto medium for connectivity among users, it has become increasingly important for network systems to intelligently manage connections.
In some systems, wireless client devices may connect with an access point over a wireless connection to transfer and receive data. In upstream communications, the wireless client devices aggregate packets into aggregated MAC service data units (AMSDUs) for transmission to the access point. Similarly, in downstream communications the wireless client devices deaggregate packets transmitted in AMSDUs from the access point.
In some systems, the access point may establish a tunnel with a controller to enable centralized security, thereby eliminating packet tampering in intermediate devices. In transmissions through the tunnel, AMSDUs may be fragmented such that they may be transmitted in maximum transmission units (MTUs). This fragmentation may lead to a reduction of performance for a datapath between the client device, the controller, and the access point as a result of significant processing and delay overhead.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.